Dr. Jen Armstrong has been a pretty nonexistent presence on her first season of Real Housewives of Orange County. Aside from a brief sparring with fellow newbie, Noella Bergener, we haven’t even seen much of Dr. Jen. It wasn’t even until the latest episode that we really saw her deeper interactions with her castmates. She had dinner with Heather Dubrow and tried to explain some of the hardships of being a career-driven, married doctor. Which of course, Heather understands. And Jen had reason to seek advice. We later saw her uncomfortably fighting with husband, Ryne Holliday. The tense exchange happened during filming, which Ryne was clearly not happy with. The argument ended up with him leaving the house to get away from it.
So it’s not completely surprising that Dr. Jen recently revealed to Us Weekly that the couple had separated after filming wrapped up. Said Jen, “We separated for a while and lived life without each other. And I think that made us have more of an appreciation for who the other person was and have a different outlook on getting back together and putting in the work to stay together.”
While the couple was only apart for a month, Jen believes it made them realize their love for one another.” She continued, “Ryan and I are much better now. It got worse and then I turned a corner and came back around. It got better.”
But Jen admits that it was hard to open up so much of her personal life to viewers of the show. She believes it ultimately strengthened her marriage but admitted, “I don’t really like it.” Jen explained, “We’ve had a challenging relationship and people can be very judgmental. A lot of people have reached out and said, ‘Oh, you deserve better. How do you let him treat you that way?’ But they’re not in the day to day. They don’t know the history.”
Jen also confessed that she found some of Ryne’s behavior on the show “pretty embarrassing” but is still going to defend him. Said Jen, “At the same time, I can see there are definitely time periods of our life where I would like to have him be more supportive.”
The couple, who shared three children together, are now ready to move forward, more committed than ever. Jen concluded, “I would say that the show put a magnifying glass on what was going on in our marriage that we had ignored for so many years when both of us were not happy. You’re forced to either come together or walk away. And so we walked away and then came together. We did both.”
TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED THEY SEPARATED? DO YOU THINK THEY WILL LAST? DO YOU WANT TO SEE DR. JEN ON ANOTHER SEASON OF RHOC?
[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]